Superstorm Sandy hurt retail sales

Chronicle News Services |
November 14, 2012

Toyota has announced recalls of more than 10 million vehicles worldwide in the past month.

ECONOMY

Storm hurt retail sales

Retail sales fell in October as American consumers pulled back after a three-month shopping spree and Superstorm Sandy slammed into the East Coast, shutting malls and auto showrooms.

The 0.3 percent drop followed a 1.3 percent increase in September that was larger than previously reported, Commerce Department figures showed. While it was able to collect information from the affected area, the agency said it couldn't quantify the impact of the big Atlantic storm.

Companies such as General Motors Co. and Ford Motor Co. said last month's storm-related sales slump will probably reverse as brighter job prospects, rising home prices and sturdier finances boost household confidence. At the same time, Wednesday's report showed Americans bought fewer nonessentials.

FINANCIAL SERVICES

Firm's collapse blamed on CEO

MF Global Holdings collapsed last year because of mistakes made by former Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Jon Corzine, according to a summary of findings from a probe led by House Republicans.

Corzine expanded into new areas without ensuring its core commodities trading business, according to the findings released Wednesday by Rep. Randy Neugebauer of Texas, chairman of the House Financial Services subcommittee. Corzine, a Democrat who formerly served as a U.S. senator, governor of New Jersey and Goldman Sachs Group co-chairman, has told lawmakers that he doesn't know what happened to the money.

The full report, due out Thursday, will recommend that Congress consider legislation to impose civil liability on the officers and directors of futures brokerages who sign financial statements or authorize transfers from customer segregated accounts.

RETAIL

Coffee company going small

Seattle's Best Coffee, the mid-tier brand owned by Starbucks, is seeking to revive its retail presence by opening drive-through and walk-up-only stores and entering new U.S. markets in a challenge to Dunkin' Donuts.

The first smaller store, which is about 600 square feet, will open in Seattle on Thursday, said Jim McDermet, senior vice president of Seattle's Best Coffee. Starbucks will open more of the smaller-size shops in Dallas starting next year.

Dunkin' Donuts, owned by Dunkin' Brands Group, has said it's expanding west across the country and will double its domestic store count to 15,000 in the long term.

Toyota Motor Corp. said Wednesday it will recall 2.77 million vehicles worldwide after detecting faults in the steering and water-pump systems of some of its gasoline and hybrid vehicles.

The Prius hybrid and Corolla compact sedans are among the 14 models subject to inspection and repair, said Naoto Fuse, a spokesman for Asia's largest automaker. The carmaker will recall 1.52 million vehicles in Japan and 1.25 million vehicles overseas, including 670,000 Prius vehicles in the United States.

The recall is the second in as many months for Toyota and comes as President Akio Toyoda pushes to rebuild the company's reputation for quality after calling back more than 10 million vehicles in 2009 and 2010. Last month, Toyota announced it will recall 7.43 million vehicles for a possible flaw that could lead the power-window switch to melt or catch fire.

VIDEO GAMES

'Call of Duty' hot sales item

Video-game retailer GameStop sold more than 1 million copies of "Call of Duty: Black Ops II" on Tuesday, positioning the new title from Activision Blizzard Inc. to break sales records.

" 'Black Ops II' is shaping up to be our biggest game launch of all time," said Tony Bartel, GameStop president.

The latest installment in the top-selling "Call of Duty" franchise went on sale timed to take advantage of the coming holiday shopping season. The title, which retails for about $60, "shattered pre-order records" set last year by "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3," according to Activision.